1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a mounting bracket for a head rail of a covering for an architectural opening. The invention particularly relates to a single piece mounting bracket that is hardly visible from the front of the covering and allows for easy mounting and dismounting of the head rail.
2. Description of the Related Art
Numerous mounting brackets are known for head rails of architectural coverings. Typical mounting brackets are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,857, U.S. Pat. No. 5,533,560 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,130. Each of these brackets is suitable for mounting a head rail that is generally U-shaped rail and has longitudinally extending front, rear and bottom walls.
One of such headrails is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,857. In this headrail the top edge of the front wall 24 of the head rail 20 is provided with a longitudinal front headrail lip 25 that extends horizontally and inwardly from the front wall towards the rear wall 21; the top edge 23 of the rear wall 21 of the head rail has a similar longitudinal rear headrail lip 22 that extends horizontally and inwardly from the rear wall 21 towards the front wall 24. Additionally the rear wall of the bracket is provided with a longitudinal mounting rim 26 that extends horizontally and rearwardly from the rear wall.
The headrails of the other prior art publications are generally the same. Each of these headrail is suitable for being mounted in the bracket of the invention.
The prior art bracket from U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,857 is a generally L-shaped bracket and comprises a top plate 41 and a rear plate 42. The top plate has a ramp portion 43 extending downwardly and at an angle away from front edge 44. A front bracket lip 46 for engaging the lower surface of the front headrail lip 25 extends horizontally and outwardly from the front edge 45 of the ramp portion 43. A spring arm 47 extends downwardly from the front edge 44 of the top plate 41 and towards the rear plate 42 for engaging by its end portion or restraining lip 48 the top of the rear head rail lip 22. A bottom ledge 49 extends horizontally outwardly from the rear plate 42, from the ledge a hook barb 51 extends upwardly for engaging the mounting rim 26 of the head rail.
The headrail is mounted to the bracket by urging the headrail up at an angle toward the corner 53 formed by the intersection of the rear plate 42 and the top plate 41. This forces the rear headrail lip 22 up into contact with the restraining lip 48 of the spring arm, and also allows the hook shaped mounting rim 26 to pass over the hooked restraining barb 51. Upon release the recoil of the spring arm 47 forces the rear headrail lip 22 and the rear wall 21 down, thereby allowing the hook rail 26 to engage the restraining barb 51. The hook barb 51 in combination with the hooked mounting rim 26 prevents any movement from the head rail horizontally either toward or away from the rear plate 42. In a different embodiment in FIG. 10 the hook feature is moved by having a hooked front head rail lip 29, 30 in combination with a hooked front bracket lip 51c. The bottom ledge 49 extends horizontally without hooked barb.
A drawback of this prior art bracket is that general large vertical displacement is needed to mount and dismount the bracket, because the hooked barb and/or hooked front bracket lip has to be cleared before the headrail is mounted or can actually be moved free of the bracket. This requires a delicate manoeuvring and for large blinds with a number of brackets spaced along the headrail a considerable and carefully co-coordinated force is needed. The other prior art bracket as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,180,130 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,530,560 have the same drawbacks caused by hook-shaped engagement members, even though these brackets are different in some other details.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a bracket with the same general characteristics as the bracket of U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,857 but to which a headrail can be more easily mounted.